SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/13/2014
8:03 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Judah’s Worship was Worthless
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah
7:1-15
Message of the
verses: We are back in the book of
Jeremiah in today’s SD, and we begin to look at chapters 7-10 with the help of
Warren Wiersbe’s commentary. First we
have to better understand the background that leads to the sermon that Jeremiah
will give to the people of Judah as he gives this in the temple, the very place
where idols worship was going on. Let us
begin with a quote from Henry David Thoreau who said “The more we know about
the ancients, the more we find that they were like the modern’s.” I think that another way of putting this could
be with the saying “History repeats itself.”
We could also say the people never seem to learn from history as they do
the same thing over and over again, but they expect a different result. We can look at our country and see it
becoming the same kind of country that brave men and women fought against and
now there are many who think that is good.
Yes history does repeat itself, and the reason it does is because
history goes through cycles as countries like ours begin with getting out of
repression as our country did when people left England to search for new
freedoms, and found them in the new world.
Our country began to increase in size in land and in people seeking the
same things that were being built here.
After a while people became comfortable, too comfortable and begin to
believe that society owed them something.
Along comes a person running for President who tells our country that we
need to divide up our wealth, taking from the rich and giving to the poor. People believed him and voted him in and thus
socialism begins to take root in our country, people thinking why I should work
for something when it can be given to me because it is my right to have
it. This isn’t exactly what happened in
Jeremiah’s day but one thing that did happen was that they became comfortable,
and never thought that God would have the city of Jerusalem destroyed because
that was where His temple was, and the people had the Law of Moses. Dr. Wiersbe writes “God, however had a
different view of the matter. He
commanded Jeremiah to go up to the temple and proclaim His message to the
hypocritical people who gathered there.
In the courageous sermon, the prophet exposed the nations false worship (Jer. 7:1-8:3), their false prophets (8:4-22), their false confidence in the covenant they
were disobeying (9:1-26), and the false
gods they were worshiping (10:1-25).
In other words, Jeremiah dealt with their sinful mistreatment of the
temple, the Law, the covenant, and the Lord Himself. It wasn’t a popular message to deliver, and
it almost cost him his life.”
The background for all of this to happen were as follows,
Josiah, who was a good king and brought a sort of revival to Judah made a
mistake in going into battle and was wounded and finally died. Egypt then dethrones Jehoahaz who took over
for Josiah after three months. Egypt
then makes Eliakim as the new regent and changes his name to Jehoiakim. He reigned for eleven years and brought
idolatry back into Judah. Thus the need
for the sermons that Jeremiah gave to the people at the temple.
False Worship: the
Temple PT-1: The message that Jeremiah
gave at the temple may have been given at one of four different feasts that
required the men to come to as seen in Deut. 16:16. We do not know this for sure, but if his
sermon was given at one of these feasts there would have been many people in
Jerusalem to come and worship there at the temple. Jeremiah would present God’s four indictment against
the people of Judah. We will look at the
first indictment he gives in the rest of this SD.
Their Worship does them no Good: (Jeremiah 7:1-15) “1 The word that came to
Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 "Stand in the gate of the LORD’S
house and proclaim there this word and say, ’Hear the word of the LORD,
all you of Judah, who enter by these gates to worship the LORD!’" 3 Thus
says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Amend your ways and your
deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 “Do not trust in deceptive
words, saying, ’This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the
temple of the LORD.’ 5 “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you
truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, 6 if you do not oppress
the alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this
place, nor walk after other gods to your own ruin, 7 then I will let you dwell in this place, in
the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. 8 “Behold, you are
trusting in deceptive words to no avail. 9
"Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and
offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known,
10 then come and stand before Me in this
house, which is called by My name, and say, ’We are delivered!’-that you may do
all these abominations? 11 “Has this house, which is called by My name, become
a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it," declares
the LORD. 12 "But go now to My place which was
in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first, and see what I did to it
because of the wickedness of My people Israel. 13 “And now, because you
have done all these things," declares the LORD, "and I spoke to you,
rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you but you
did not answer, 14 therefore,
I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the
place which I gave you and your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15 “I will cast you out of My sight,
as I have cast out all your brothers, all the offspring of Ephraim.” (Northern Kingdom)
I want to first of all compare verses six and nine with
the Ten Commandants and see how many of them that these people broke, but the
sad part is that they had no problem with it.
“6
if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood
in this place, nor walk
after other gods to your own ruin.
9 “Will you steal,
murder, and commit
adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other
gods that you have not known.”
“"You
shall have no other gods before Me.”You shall not make for yourself an idol, "Honor
your father and your mother, "You shall not commit adultery. "You shall not steal. "You shall not bear false witness
against your neighbor. Here is a list of some of the commandments that this
people broke.
Jesus
quoted verse eleven when he cleansed the temple, calling it a den of
robbers. A den of robbers is where
robbers go after the committed the crime of robbing, so Jeremiah was saying to
the Jews that they were using the temple ceremonies to cover up the secret sins. They were not being made holy by going to the
temple, but they were making the temple unholy by going to it. In Isaiah chapter one which was written a
hundred years earlier Isaiah gives the same message, and the Apostle Paul
writes a similar warning to NT believers in his day. “1 ¶
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved
you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a
fragrant aroma.
3 But immorality or any impurity or greed
must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; 4 and there must be no filthiness and silly
talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5
For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous
man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath
of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them (Ephesians
5:1-7).” “ What we have to remember as true believers in
Jesus Christ that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Jewish temple was destroyed two times and
so with the new covenant we are God’s temple and because of this fact we need to
live a life that is pleasing to the Lord.
I
verses 12-15 we read of the need of repentance that God through Jeremiah offers
these people, but of course they would not repent. We also see that Jeremiah brings up what the
Lord did to Shiloh as seen in the early chapters of 1 Samuel. The High Priest’s sons were very unholy doing
all kinds of detestable things so God brought the Philistines on Israel and the
Ark of the Covenant was taken by them.
God did have it brought back, but Israel went into defeat and the place
where they worshiped was gone until David brought it into Jerusalem.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I must remember at all times that the Holy
Spirit lives in me to help me to walk in obedience with the Lord as He convicts
me of sin, and also opens up the Word of God so that I can understand it. Paul writes that we are not to grieve the
Holy Spirit of God.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to get me through the happy
but difficult days ahead as we care for a sick parent and celebrate the gift of
God in the person of our new granddaughter.
Memory verses for the
week: Philippians 2:5-6 “5 Have this
attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He
existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be
grasped,
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Salome, the daughter of
Herodias” (Matthew 14:6).
Today’s Bible
question: “What feast did God institute
to commemorate the Israelites’ deliverance from Egypt?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/13/2014 10:05 AM
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